


Too Tempting Not to Touch

by HolleringHawk65



Series: The Batman They Got [2]
Category: Batman (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Batman!Jason, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Tim is in a wheelchair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-29
Updated: 2016-08-29
Packaged: 2018-08-11 18:06:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7902514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HolleringHawk65/pseuds/HolleringHawk65
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jason could’ve walked away, but a person from his Other Life is sitting right there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Too Tempting Not to Touch

**Author's Note:**

> Basically one day Jason woke up in a different world where he didn’t exist so he had to start all over. Bruce is just the head of Wayne Enterprises, not Batman, so Jason takes it upon himself to become Batman, except this world has the Avengers and they Do Not Approve (and neither does the GCPD).

He thinks that some things never change no matter what universe you’re in and other things switch around.

He’s not purposefully following him or seeking him out, but Jason sees the familiar hair and catches glimpses of a bright and shiny camera at least twice a week. At first, he thought that he was imagining it, but then he saw all of him.

It's night and Tim is sitting in one of Gotham’s main parks, bundled up in a thick sweatshirt and jeans with a blanket over his lap, his camera resting on top of that. Jason watches for a few minutes from the edge of the trees before Tim turns around, moves in his direction but not _because_ of him; there’s no way that he could know that he was there.

Jason can’t stop himself as he steps out from the shadows. Tim’s eyes widen, his fingers on the camera tighten.

“Wow.” He sounds breathless, as if taking all of Jason’s bulk in the Batsuit is physically taxing. “You’re really Batman.”

He wants to say _Are you really Tim Drake?_ , but he doesn’t. “Yeah, I’m Batman. Are you alright, out here all alone?”

He doesn’t say anything for a moment, choosing to look down at the camera instead. “Why do you care?” He rolls his wheelchair back. “And for you information, I’m quite capable.”

“I don’t doubt it.” He gets closer, a foot away from Tim, who looks up at him with eyes full of adoration, as if Jason had just gotten a kitten out of a tree and Tim was the owner. He wonders if this is what it would have been like had he actually met Tim when he was Robin. “Does anyone know you’re here?”

He means it out of simple curiosity and he knows that’s how Tim interprets it, instead of it potentially sounding creepy, because Tim is Tim and Tim is smart.

“My friends just went into a store, they’ll be back in a few minutes. We try to do outings like this every so often.”

“Until you find the perfect shot,” Jason says, smiling as he tilts his head towards the camera.

Tim laughs. It takes Jason a moment to realize that it’s not at what he said -- it’s not out of nervousness -- but because of how he must look, tilting his head with bat ears on top. “I guess? You know, I always thought I would find it at twilight, fireflies dancing around a fountain, surrounded by woods. Then I thought I would find it with D - my boyfriend, his skin bare against the sheets, his eyes closed, deep asleep. But the first time I saw you, running across the tops of the buildings, I realized that my perfect picture wouldn’t be of flying bugs or the love of my life. It would be of you, a nighttime story to scare children on to a straight path, a legend.” He laughs again and this time it carries a slight hint of nerves. “I don't know why I told you all of that.”

“Maybe because legends never reveal secrets,” Jason answers. He would stay and talk more to him, but the conversation seems to have hit a natural stop and he can hear Tim’s friends -- who sound an awful lot like Bart and Kon -- coming, so he turns to slip into the shadows again.

He doesn’t know why, but he hesitates for a second. That one second allows him to hear Tim say “Be careful.” He wonders if Tim had landed in the wheelchair because he had tried to make a difference, and ultimately hurt himself in a way that even Tim Drake, Red Robin, couldn’t easily come back from.

“You too,” he tells him, knowing Tim is still close enough to hear him, close enough to be staring at something about the Batsuit. Jason knows that he would know the weight of that stare anywhere, in any universe.

It’s not until later, when the Batsuit is tucked safely away and Jason has taken a cold shower, and was now resting on his bed, that he realizes how much talking to Tim meant to him.

That he doesn’t feel as alone as he had before.


End file.
